


magnetic push and pull

by sheepguts



Category: BNA: Brand New Animal (Anime)
Genre: F/F, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Lesbian Romance, One Shot, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, i should probably get a beta reader at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28705737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheepguts/pseuds/sheepguts
Summary: Nazuna hasn't always been a part of Michiru's life, but she's always been part of her world.
Relationships: Hiwatashi Nazuna & Nina Flip, Hiwatashi Nazuna/Kagemori Michiru, Nina Flip & Kagemori Michiru
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	magnetic push and pull

**Author's Note:**

> first things first i need to get a beta reader seriously omg someone bash me over the head i will just crank things out and not even look at them. like im embarrassed. here. lesbian romance. no i didnt read it more than once you take it as it is
> 
> secondly this fic is dedicated to my lovely girlfriend who i dont even think watches bna but she let me post 50 michiruna images in her yuri channel so you know. true love 
> 
> ummm also thanks to all the wonderful people in the bna fandom that know me from @mari-itami on tumblr u guys are amazing. maybe not as amazing as my gf though
> 
> this fic is pretty much just pre- and post-canon, i didnt feel up to the task of rewatching all of bna to rewrite the canon scenes. sorry

Michiru Kagemori hastily writes her homework answers down. She figures she can manage to finish before class starts. When her homeroom teacher arrives, the start of the day goes a little differently than she’d expected.

“Students,” the teacher announces, “we have a new transfer student who will be joining us from now on.” Michiru fiddles with her pencil. She leans back in her seat.

The transfer kid waves, almost shyly, before moving on to introduce herself. “I’m Hiwatashi Nazuna,” she says with a gentle smile. “Nice to meet you all.” She bows smoothly.

As the class hums back to life, Nazuna hurries straight towards the only empty seat: a lone desk parked right next to the window, located beside Michiru. Nazuna sits, glancing away towards the wall. The sunlight pouring through makes her look like she’s glowing. Her light-coloured hair captivates Michiru, in a way she’s never felt captivated before, even by any of the guys she knows. 

Nazuna turns her head to lock gazes with Michiru, and that’s when she realizes she’s been staring. The new girl’s eyes fall to her almost completed math sheet.

“That one’s wrong,” Nazuna says, pointing at a rather difficult problem. 

“It is?” Michiru pulls her gaze away. She erases her work with a little more force than is necessary. 

“This is how you’re supposed to solve it,” Nazuna continues. With a lack of any hesitation, she leans over, quietly taking Michiru’s pencil to write on her paper. When she finishes, she looks up, and her eyes widen a bit. “Oh! Sorry. You didn’t ask for my help, did you?”

“No,” Michiru responds, shaking her head. “But thanks! I’m Kagemori Michiru!” She grins, and when Nazuna starts laughing, something in Michiru’s heart twists.

It’s a new, weird feeling, but not an unwelcome one, Michiru realizes.

*

She sits her lunch down in her lap to wave Nazuna over. Her friend lights up when she sees her, pulling away from her current conversation to settle down on the bench beside her.

“Hey, Miss Popular,” Michiru greets. “Whatcha up to?”

Nazuna flicks Michiru on her forehead. She lets out a playful little yelp. “Tell me what you think,” she begins, not even bothering to fiddle with her own lunch. Michiru leaves her a bit of leftover rice, in case she wants it. “You think I could...hmm.” Her gaze flits around. She’s nervous. 

“Is this about auditions again? I think you have a shot,” Michiru replies, pointing at her with her chopsticks. “Honestly, you’re pretty good at the whole singing thing.”

“It’s not that.” Nazuna isn’t focusing on anything. She stares out into the bustle of students hurrying to and fro. “I don’t know. You think I’m cut out for class rep?”

“If anybody’s cut out for it, it’s definitely you,” Michiru says with full confidence. “I mean, come on. You’re practically already everyone’s favorite, and you’re pretty,” she continues, counting her points with her fingers, “and you got top-of-the-class smarts. I think you’ve got it.”

“You really think so?” Nazuna looks somewhat flustered, uncertain. Michiru swears she’s seen this side of Nazuna - the unconfident, slightly shy, bashful girl - more than any of her classmates. 

“No,” she says suddenly, snapping her chopsticks up in the air. “I know so! Come on, I left you some of my rice. You better start eating before lunch break’s over!” 

Nazuna blinks, once, twice, and then breaks into a smile. It’s genuine. Michiru always sees her genuine smiles, the ones where even her eyes crease up, and feels her face warm. There’s something about it that makes her crave more, more of this real, honest happiness that Nazuna seems to have an easier time showing around her. She savors it.

“All right,” Nazuna giggles. “I trust you.” 

Her heart flutters.

*

Today, Michiru and Nazuna are on an after-school adventure. Nazuna wanted to walk home together, so Michiru obliged, before dragging her friend off on a few detours. Now she was towing her along in the manga aisle.

“Oh, come on,” Michiru is exasperatedly saying. “Catman Strikes Back is a classic. Loved by all! Because he’s always like, ‘meow meow meow! I will sniff out crime and scratch ‘em out!’ And then he’s like, POW!” She punches the air. 

“I didn’t know I was friends with Catman’s number one fan.” Nazuna studies the current volume that Michiru has been waving around in her face. She shoves it back into its place on the shelf. “His catchphrase sounds...bad.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know how you read these, Michi.”

“They’re good! I purr-romise!” Michiru whines. Nazuna fails to contain her laughter. 

“Tell you what,” her friend says, and Michiru finds herself all ears. “I’ll go find what I think is the worst one, and you go find what you think is the worst one, and we’ll swap.”

“Deal!” They shake hands on it. “You’re goin’ down, punk!”

They split. It takes Michiru about five minutes to find something awful. It’s a brand new single volume story about some guy with a sword and a dragon on the cover. Not entirely satisfied with her find, she continues to prowl the shelves, eventually ending up in a spot of the store she doesn’t recognize. It’s quietly tucked away in a far-off corner. Michiru places the sword-guy-and-dragon story to the side to look at the titles here, swiping one at random, flipping through it.

She freezes. Her heart thuds awfully loudly. 

“Michi!” she hears Nazuna call. Without thinking, Michiru stuffs the other manga into her schoolbag and grabs her original choice, hurrying off towards her friend. She looks around, just to make sure nobody saw her, and if Nazuna asks -

she’ll come up with something.

*

“Yours was pretty bad, I gotta admit,” sighs Michiru in defeat. “How do you even find crap like that?”

“A girl has her ways.” Nazuna winks. “Yours wasn’t bad. It was rather boring, though.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” She watches Nazuna pull out a strawberry-flavored pocky stick. They’d made a final stop at a convenience store and were halfway through the box at this point. Michiru watches her feet carefully.

The pair come to a halt. “Michi,” Nazuna murmurs, “is something wrong?”

“Hm?” Michiru looks up in surprise. Her eyes are a little wide. “What? Why?”

“You look...upset.” Nazuna takes Michiru’s hands in hers. Her touch is gentle. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Yeah,” she responds, but casts her gaze away, and feels a lump form in her throat. “I think I’m just tired. Thanks for today.”

Nazuna seems unsatisfied, but she lets it go. “All right,” she says. “And, you’re welcome. I had a lot of fun.”

When Michiru arrives home, she sprints up the stairs, making sure the door to her room is closed. She throws her schoolbag on her bed, digging out the other manga she’d snatched up, flipping through it.

She comes to a sudden stop, staring down at the page. It’s two school girls. She can tell by the uniform. And they’re…

Kissing, she thinks. They’re kissing, and smiling, and giggling at each other. Kissing. Even though they’re both...both…

“Michiru!” her mother calls, and she slams the book shut. Michiru shoves it under her pillow, her heart beating fast. She feels as if her world has been turned upside down. It’s as if she’s realized something new, that she hadn’t realized was possible before. 

And suddenly, it all snaps into place.

*

Michiru keeps to herself for a few days. She’s got to take her time, sort it all out. Her shocking discovery the other day has left her scrambling to put back together the pieces of her world. 

Of course, all this means avoiding her closest friend - Nazuna. She can’t bring herself to approach her. She feels guilty about - well, all of it, but mostly the way that her face warms when Nazuna looks at her with gentle joy in her eyes, or how much she likes the soft touch of Nazuna’s hands in hers, or how jealous she feels when the other guys crowd around her, or -

Michiru shakes the thoughts away. Nazuna would definitely stop being her friend if she was honest about all of that, she thinks. Definitely. She’d probably see her as a creepy weirdo. Definitely. And maybe it’s selfish to keep these feelings to herself, but Michiru can’t bear potentially losing her closest friend, even if it means suffering in silence like this. But she’ll do it, for Nazuna’s sake. 

She’ll manage.

*

Nazuna finally confronts her during lunch.

“Michi.” Her face is serious, and even a little sad. Michiru feels something in her gut twist. She decides she hates seeing Nazuna like this.

“You’ve been avoiding me, haven’t you?” Ugh. There it is. Straight to the point.

“Sorry,” she mutters, looking away. Somebody’s left their eraser on the floor. 

Nazuna refuses to move away from her desk. “Michiru,” she says, her voice full of hurt. She meets Nazuna’s gaze.

“I really do mean it,” Michiru hastily adds. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

They both stare at each other for what feels like an eternity. Under different circumstances, Michiru would like to enjoy this moment; a world with just the two of them in it is the only world she’d love to live in. She brushes the thought away just as fast as it came.

Nazuna makes the first move. “Please don’t do that ever again,” she sighs softly. Michiru almost doesn’t hear it.

“I won’t. I promise.” And she really does mean it.

*

It’s just a normal, friendly activity, Michiru tells herself as Nazuna leans into her. Just a sleepover. Just a movie. 

She fiddles with her hands. Nazuna’s definitely awake. She’s sure of it. 

The movie they’re watching seems to be hitting its climax. It’s some sort of cheesy romcom, about a shy woman meeting her perfect match. Michiru’s chest aches. She makes a pass for the pocky box, taking out a stick.

“Michiru,” Nazuna says suddenly, sitting up. 

“Hm? Yeah?” She stretches, but still feels antsy. She wishes she could go for a run right about now. Running’s always been her favorite time-killer, her most favorite thing to do, before she met Nazuna and started feeling weird all the time. Before, all she did was run towards her goal, and now all she’s done is run away.

Nazuna turns slowly. She’s beautiful, Michiru thinks, staring at her as the television casts a hazy glow on her. She looks like an angel. Heavenly. She swallows thickly.

Her friend leans in. Their noses are almost touching. 

“I like you,” she breathes. Michiru’s eyes drift shut. “I really like you, Michiru.”

*

“And don’t forget that I love you,” Michiru laughs as she kisses Nazuna on the cheek. “You’ll totally blow the competition!”

“All right, all right,” Nazuna smiles. 

“Na-zu-na!” Michiru recites from memory. “Read it right-side up and upside-down, it’s the same!”

Her girlfriend starts breaking out into giggles. There’s a light blush on her cheeks. 

“Everyone’s number one idol,” she shouts, flashing a pose. Nazuna gives her a playful shove.

“Thank you for your patronage,” her girlfriend, Nazuna (what a delightful thought, Michiru thinks, feeling warm), sighs contentedly. 

“I’ll be seeing you around then,” Michiru smiles back. “In about, let’s say, fifteen minutes?”

“You got it, Miss Kagemori.” Nazuna blows her a kiss. Michiru blows one right back. 

*

“Knock-knock!” Michiru announces as she raps on the door. Nazuna opens it and she jumps into her girlfriend’s arms. They both squeal and spin around. The entire world is just the two of them, here in Nazuna’s small backstage room. 

“You don’t have to say knock-knock, you know,” Nazuna finally says when they settle down to just hold each other. “You can just come in.”

“I know you love it when I say knock-knock! That’s why I keep saying it, Naz!” Michiru’s ears droop in mock sadness. 

“Hmmm,” she hums, “I guess I do…” 

They share a brief silence. Michiru breaks first. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just - too funny when you get all serious like that!”

“Hey! There she is!” A high-pitched voice calls out from the doorway. 

“Nina!” Nazuna reluctantly pulls away from Michiru to greet her friend. They quickly hug. 

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Nina says. “You two are pretty cute, you know! My followers love it.”

Michiru blushed. Nazuna chuckled. “I know,” she said, looking at the poor flustered tanuki. “Oh, believe me, I know.”

*

They spend the following morning in silence. Pale light filters through the window. Michiru snuggles closer to her girlfriend.

“Everyone’s number one idol, huh,” Nazuna murmurs.

“Everyone’s number one idol,” Michiru agrees, “but only my number one girlfriend.”

“What did you do with all fifteen minutes, anyway?” 

“Hm?” She pulls away, blinking. “Well, I just waited on you, duh.”

“Must’ve been boring.”

“Nah.” The tanuki relaxes, returning to her favorite spot, where she rests on Nazuna’s shoulder. “Hey. Thanks for remembering.”

Now it’s Nazuna’s turn to be confused. “Remembering...what?”

“That I love you.” 

A cicada hisses outside.

“How could I ever forget?”

**Author's Note:**

> u can follow me @mari-itami for my ramblings about michiruna or my main @wolf-turtle


End file.
